I noticed that the British government rejected the idea of a “wage subsidy” that was put forward by unions (who would have guessed 😉 ). Now, whenever a government outright rejects an idea I usually ask myself the question “how could that idea have worked” followed by “would that idea have worked”. In this case […]
Over at Tumeke, Tim Selwyn states: Not even our high interest rates are enough anymore (to keep our currency elevated) – that’s why I can’t see our Reserve Bank slashing rates on the 29th as aggressively as some people think they should Now Tim raises a relevant point – a lower dollar both increases prices […]
So, annual growth in the consumer price index has fallen from 5.1% to 3.4%. A sharp decline in petrol prices appears to have been the main driver of this drop off in annual price growth. However, what about “inflation”. Annual non-tradable growth increased to 4.3% – the highest level since late-2005. If I wasn’t now […]
In a recent post by Paul Krugman he laments the lack of serious arguments against a fiscal expansion. I think that this is a bit extreme on his part – but I think that his criticism of John Taylor indicates the exact value judgment that makes him feel this way: You’ve got John Taylor arguing […]
An excellent article by Stephen Kirchner of Institutional Economics on why the paradox of thrift has to be taken in context. Key quote for me: But recessions are not made worse via increased saving, so long as the financial system continues to put that saving to work As long as the financial system is working […]
Eugene Fama has written a much maligned post on stimulus packages. As a medium-long term view there is really nothing wrong with it, but the large swath of criticisms that have appeared focus on the fact that the author appears to be implying that there is no short-term stabilisation possible from expansionary fiscal policy – […]